Gears of War 2 Wishlist


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http://features.teamxbox.com/xbox/1785/Our...-2-Wishlist/p1/

Our Gears of War 2 Wishlist

By: Will Tuttle - "KingTut"

November 13th, 2006

Gears of War 2 is coming. Granted, nothing has been officially announced or anything, but we all know that Epic and Microsoft will milk that glorious cash cow as long as possible. The game's already flying off store shelves, the Xbox Live lobbies are packed, and I know several people (OK, just me) who have played through the whole game more than once. A sequel (or, perhaps, prequel?) is inevitable, so we thought that now might be a great time to let Epic know what we want to see in the next game. There are already rumors floating around "teh intarwebs" that the game is the first part in a planned trilogy, so we'll cut Cliffy B and the boys a little slack if our suggestions don't make it into the second part.

So, without further ado, here's our Gears of War 2 wishlist. These suggestions are all from our editors, but we also want to know what you, the readers, want to see. Post your ideas in the TeamXbox forums and we'll run another wishlist later this week...

More Backstory

If you purchased the Special UberWicked Limited Collector's Edition, you got a chance to read all about the history of the planet Sera, from the description of exactly what Imulsion is to the story behind the "Pendulum Wars" to the socialist leanings of the Coalition of Ordered Governments. While the game mentioned a bit of this stuff (mostly in passing), it really didn't take full advantage of the admittedly intriguing backstory. We're hoping that the next game fleshes all of this out a bit more, whether it be through cutscenes or in-game dialogue or flashbacks. I mean, don't you want to know what Marcus did to end up in prison?

More Varied Multiplayer Modes

While there's no denying that crushing skulls under your boot during a heated game of Execution is an absolute blast, we can't help but wish that there were a few objective-based gametypes thrown in for good measure. I mean, Assassination sort of fits the bill, but it just isn't the same as a Territories or Capture-the-Flag game. Instead of truly working as a cohesive unit, players can just run off and try to take the opposing team out on their own. Wouldn't it be fun to work together toward a common goal? What about a rousing game of Destroy the Seeder?

4 Player Co-op Play

This one's kind of a no-brainer. Since much of Gears of War's action involves four players, wouldn't it be cool to be able to hop online with four of your friends. One could control Marcus, one could play as Dom, a third could be my man Cole, with the final hopping in to open doors as Jack. Errr, maybe they'd rather be Baird. No matter what the final setup is, this would be a blast, especially if there were four branching paths at a given time, as opposed to the two that we saw in Gears.

Better Dialogue

As much as I love the whole "badass action hero" air that Marcus exudes, some of his dialogue in the game is downright awful. There were a few good moments here and there (mostly when either Baird was making wisecracks or Cole was going nuts), but most of the dialogue was pretty hammy. Imagine Arnie's "Commando" mixed with Stallone's "Rambo" (with a little Marvin/Norris "Delta Force" thrown in for good measure) and you've got a pretty good idea of what to expect from the script. Oh well, at least the voicework is solid.

A Better Lobby System

Have you ever switched gametypes in between rounds on Xbox Live? You know, like going from Warzone to Execution because that's what everyone wants to play? No? Well, that's probably because you can't. Once you're in a game, the options are extremely limited. Pretty much all you can do is change your character or kick other players out. Would it be too much to ask to be able to change the maps on the fly or tweak any of the other options? Gears of War features some of the best multiplayer action around, but having to leave a game, make changes, then re-invite everyone is just a pain in the ass.

Brumaks, Brumaks, Brumaks!

Without spoiling too much (SPOILER ALERT!), let's just say that we were a bit disappointed by the sequence involving the hulking behemoth with the heavy weaponry on its back. I mean, wouldn't that be an insane boss battle?

Only One Save?

Although it's certainly not as restrictive as, say, Dead Rising, the save system in Gears of War could use a little work. You can only have one campaign save at a time, and while you can go back and play any of the previous chapters, you won't start with any of the weapons that you already had (something I found out the hard way). Sure, you can use multiple memory cards, but does anyone really want to do that? This would come in particular handy when you're playing co-op games with multiple friends, so hopefully we'll be seeing it in the next game.

More Varied Environments

While there were definitely some cool environments (the Greenhouse and most of Act Two immediately come to mind), we were getting a bit tired of the whole "Destroyed Beauty" thing after a while. In the next game, we'd love to see some outdoor environments (seriously, just think about taking cover behind a redwood that's slowly being chipped away by gunfire) or something with a wide variety of lighting (Vegas, baby!).

Less Gray, More Color

This kind of ties into the previous entry in the list, but wouldn't it be great to see what the Unreal Engine 3 could do with bright, vibrant colors? During a demonstration at the Game Developers Conference a few years ago, we had a chance to check out what the engine could really do. A windmill stood in the middle of a huge, green pasture that was dotted with flowers of all colors. It was truly beautiful, and something we'd love to see in the next game. I mean, just think of how nice the autumnal leaves look as you make your way up to the mansion. Maybe the next time we see Marcus, he'll be fighting his way out of a flower shop.

Although we want a lot more stuff (such as more multiplayer maps and ranked matches with friends), we'll hold off until we see what Epic's got planned for downloadable content. This should be enough to get the team's creative juices flowing, and we're hopeful that they give this article a read while they're relaxing on a beach with a well-deserved alcoholic beverage of their choice.

Now that we've posted our ideas, it's your turn. Chime in on the forums and let us know what you want to see. Later this week, we'll be posting a story with the best suggestions from the readers.

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Yeah, really the only major complaint I had when playing through GoW is that the main base of the story and background is found in sources other than the game, and for a lot of people, they won't end up finding it. I wish the story would've been more developed. But I did like being able to just jump right in and shoot stuff up rather than waiting through a bunch of cutscenes. I guess it's a trade-off. I was just a bit disappointed by the lack of much of a story.

-Spenser

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Same here spenser, I laughed at the end when they say

They don't know why we wage this war, why we will keep fighting

...yeah, maybe because you NEVER had a story, lol. I learned more about GoW storyline the months coming to the game's release date (from cliffyb interviews), than the game itself.

:::i cant spell

Edited by Meshuggah
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Am I the only person in the world who liked GoW's dialogue? 8o

Yeah, pretty much. :p

All I ever heard from Fenix and Santiago were "Sh*t yeah", "Nice", and "Sweet". Lol, just an excuse to use curse words.

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Mainly the dialogue wasn't great, but it got pretty good during the "factory" level where they introduced the dark wretches, mostly around the toilet humor. I agree that they should have put more story into it, i'd like to know about what the heck went on before Marcus gets out of prison.

Marcus: "Do you have the code?"

Dom: "Yea, i left it in my other pants..."

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Cole kicked ass. I loved his comments.

But yeah, I would like to learn more about exactly what's going on. Does anybody have any links to the backstory?

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This may surpirse and actually upset a lot of my fellow gamers out there, but I think I am one of the only gamers in the world where the story is the sincerely and truly the absolute last thing I care about.

Even with HL2, whose story was one of the best IMO, I barely gave it much attention at all. I can tell you about it all is there was some place for scientists called Black Mesa, it got attacked, and the main character is a nerd turned super hero named Gordon somehow always gets out of a jam at the end thanks to some weird alien guys and time freezing somehow. That and of course some old ass dude in a suit is somehow behind all of the problems. :rofl:

If the game itself plays great, I could care less if the story makes no sense at all. Just give me good gameplay, and leave the story telling to Hollywood. Honestly, whenever I do pay attention to a story, they more often than not take away from a game to me, as they are usually so damn cheesy and have something just so far fetched thrown into them that it is laughable. Perhaps it is because there is not much more to be done that what has already been done...

Bad guys do something, and I am the person that needs to unleash a can of whoop ass to hopefully stop them from doing what they are doing. Some games of course stand out, the Silent Hill series is the ones I can think of right away. But they are few and far in between.

Honestly, cut-scenes to me more often than not is a time for me to take a break and go refill whatever drink I am drinking, or a time to go to the can and relieve myself...

Perhaps it is because I grew up reading books, perhaps I have ADD and do not know it, but I would personally still love games if there was no story at all behind them... A perfect example just came to mind. I loved Counter Strike. Story. Shoot the bad guys because they are bad. That is about all I need. :laugh:

Let the flaming begin... I fully expect it. ;)

I should probably mention the fact I do not really play RPG's at all... After writing this I have come to the realization why this is... they rely much more on story than game play a lot of the time.

Edited by DirtyLarry
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Let the flaming begin... I fully expect it. ;)

Flamer, god you suck. I hate you so much for not liking the storyline. All your opinion belong to us. :D

With opinions like these, you shouldn't even be a moderator. Give the position to me.

Me > You, 'nuff said.

PS: You suck.

PPS: You suck x's 2.

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I didn't have a problem with the lines in the game at all. I did think the story was severely lacking, though -- which is a shame, because when they tried to emphasize the story, they actually did a good job -- like in the cutscenes. They just needed a little more to actually explain things so you can follow why you're doing things.

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I do somewhat agree with you DL - I like being placed right in the action and just being able to start unleashing on whatever needs to be wiped off the planet. The only thing here is (and again it's not that great a deal to me) is that it kinda sticks you in the middle of a very extravagant storyline and doesn't explain how you got there at all and isn't at all extravagant in the game. I think for a lot of people who don't know where to go on the internet, or know that an elegant backstory exists would probably be somewhat confused. Despite that, I think the excellent gameplay kinda makes you not care so much.

-Spenser

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where is the best place to learn about the storyline?

They had the best places to learn the storyline in the game, but they just didn't take advantage of it.

For example, when they killed off Kim in the game and gave Fenix a promotion. Or when they mentioned his trial casually. Also, when they revealed the data came from Fenix's house -- but they didn't say how it was from there and just left that wide open.

The game had amazing cut-scenes, which makes it a shame the story wasn't better. The cut-scenes were movie-quality, but the story was not. Another good place to have the story would be during gameplay, too, similar to Half-Life 2. Leave little tid-bits here and there. Have people gradually say more about the situation. There wasn't much of that.

The main thing was that you were always doing something, but you never knew why you were doing it. Hell, I didn't even know what the goal on the last mission was the entire time I was playing it until I saw the cut-scene.

Still, though, it was an amazing gameplay experience. It's just one of those few times I think a little more background on the story would have helped.

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